Son of the Snake
by Bubblekins1010
Summary: Orochimaru took Naruto away from the village hidden in the leave five years ago, when he was only 7. Naruto of course was raised to hate the village, now, five years later, him and his genin team are in the exams, but when he's faced with a decision of keeping his new home and going back to the old, will he decide to save his village or will the pull of power and roots hold fast?
1. The kidnapping of Naruto Uzumaki!

I don't own it; I admit it, so really you wouldn't have much of a case against me in court.

Son of the Snake

Chapter 1

The kidnapping of Naruto Uzumaki!

Naruto trudged home after school. It was tiring, especially for a 7 year old like him. And with everything else, he didn't know what to do other than keep going, even if it was only barely. He entered his apartment, and walked down the small hall which opened into his bedroom. He flopped back onto the bed, and sighed, closing his eyes.

* * *

Orochimaru dropped from the ceiling where he had been hiding. He had only come to look over the one he wanted... But the Jinchuriki would make an excellent student, with so much chakra. It was an excellent idea. And who knows maybe he would be doing the kid a favor, no one wanted him around anyways, and that counted even further in his favor because it meant he would be easy to turn into a strong enemy of the leaf.

"Sensei, you are a fool to leave him by himself. People like me can just take him away. Well, it's your loss..." he said summoning a snake, which promptly bit the blonde boy. "That should keep him unconscious for a while..."

Naruto's POV

He woke up, and the first thing he felt was a stinging on his leg. He sat up and moved the covers he was under; he found four puncture marks on his left thigh. It was obviously done by a snake, but he wasn't dying. So obviously the poison was gone. He began looking around the room, he was currently sitting in a fairly large bed, it was about 6 feet across, and 8 feet long, it was obviously underground because there were no windows, and everything was lit by torches. He sat there for almost half an hour before deciding to get out of the bed. He stood up a little shakily, and walked to one of the doors, it was locked. There were three more doors. The next one was a closet, the next a bathroom (Which he was really glad for), and the last one was locked. There was a table with some paper on it, a candle, and a chair in front of it, a mirror on the wall, and in the closet several sets of clothes that looked brand new.

He decided to change clothes into something a bit newer, cleaner as well. He chose the Azure blue pants, and shirt. Once he was changed he laid back down on the bed sighing, wondering what he had been thrown into now...He would have first assumed that it was one of the villagers, but then the clothes, and the bathroom was not only working, but in perfect shape. And the bed was quite comfortable, much more so than the one he had at home, it hadn't been one of the villagers; he decided soon falling back asleep, not noticing as someone entered the room.

Three hours later...

Naruto sat up groggily. He was still slightly tired; from the poison he assumed.

"So you've finally woken up..." a voice said from the corner.

"Who're you?"

"I am Kabuto Yakushi. I've been asked by your father to watch you."

"My... Father...?"

"Lord Orochimaru."

"Orochimaru... That name... I think I've heard it before..."

"Probably when you were in the academy, they have an odd curriculum there, it jumps a lot. One moment you'll be learning about one hundred years ago, and then you'll come all the way to ten years ago… But I guess it's hard to do it any other way. There are lessons that must be learned from history only at certain times."

"I know who Orochimaru is! He's a village traitor, why the heck is he saying he's my dad?!"

"He saved you from that place. Think about it… They have tried multiple times to kill you, and you're only an innocent child. But here, with us, you can have people all around you that appreciate you, and all of your hard work."

"B-but… I was going to be Hokage… I was going to make them all respect me if I had too."

"But you see they wouldn't have allowed that…They hate you, but here, you'll have friends."

"B-But I did have friends… Iruka Sensei, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino… And Hinata and I even talked together once in a while…"

"Do you think they should, their parents I'm sure have told them multiple times not to associate with you… They might get in trouble. You wouldn't want that would you?" Kabuto asked him leaving the fact Iruka was an orphan out of the equation.

"I-I…"

"Are you hungry?" Kabuto suddenly asked. Naruto nodded.

"What would you like?"

"Ramen!" Kabuto chuckled standing up.

"Ramen it is…"

* * *

Hiruzen sighed sadly. It had been three days already and there was still no sign of Naruto, most of the village was talking about it, and for his liking, far too many were celebrating; far too many as in excluding 12 people, maybe a few others. And of course there was the fact that he had to tell Jiraiya…

"So what's the celebration about?" Jiraiya asked lightheartedly entering his office through the window.

"Something's happened… It's… About Naruto…"

"What?" Jiraiya asked his lightheartedness gone.

"Three days ago he was kidnapped. I immediately sent the ANBU, and Inuzuka I could trust after them, though that was very few, but all signs point to…"

"What? All signs point to what?"

"All signs point to Orochimaru being his kidnapper…"

"But, what would Orochimaru want with him?!" he yelled, much more alarmed with this new piece of information.

"I don't know the nine tails inside of him maybe. I should've finished the job when I had the chance, this wouldn't be happening now if I had." Hiruzen said.

"You want me to go look for him?"

"Yes, in a way… You see I want you to keep an ear out for _anything_ that might lead us to him. I don't even want to _think_ what might be happening."

"I don't either. I'm scared sensei…"

"For the boy, or is it being pummeled by his parents in the afterlife?"

"Both…"

"Well I guess we can only hope for the best."

"Finding info on Orochimaru is now my top priority, I will find Naruto; he's my godson and my responsibility after all." Jiraiya said, and then left the same way he had come, and dropped into a hotel, then left the village ten minutes later.

* * *

Naruto laid down for some more sleep, Kabuto had told him that the snake that had bitten him hadn't used poison, it was a sedative instead meant to keep him asleep, and it would only wear off with time. The silver haired boy had been highly amused at how much the kid could eat, he'd finally stopped somewhere around twenty bowls. Eventually the teen had left, and left Naruto to his own devices.

"Kabuto, how is our newest addition doing?" Orochimaru asked.

"He's torn; it might take a bit of tampering with his memory to get him to pledge allegiance with us, but not too much. I mostly just have to remove some people from his mind. Out of sight, out of mind and he's as good as ours."

"Good, good. Now… You should go back. The time your mission was assigned to should be up soon."

"I have two days to return. I'll be fine."

"Yes, you have two weeks to return here, and while you're gone I think I'll go and see _him_…"

* * *

Jiraiya sighed. There was a trail right up until the forest. _He must've had an accomplice to meet with him and cover any tracks…_ "_DANG IT OROCHIMARU_!" He yelled.

* * *

"Well Naruto, it's nice to meet you." Orochimaru said sitting in the only chair in the room. (Unless you count the bed...)

"Who're you?"

"I'm Orochimaru... But I would rather father or something close to it since I've adopted you..."

"You'll have to earn that title."

"Yes, yes, it only seems fair..."

"Why did you take me away from home?"

"Because, it's better for you here, no one here will hurt you, you will not only be acknowledged, but also cared for. And when you're old enough, you'll be able to become a ninja."

"But... My friends are going to worry about me... And the Old Man... And-and I was already going to be a ninja, I was going to be Hokage!"

"Well why don't you just think about it..."

"But I don't want to think about it, I want to go home!"

"Ah, but you are home...At least in my eyes."

"But home...To me...Is Konoha...with my friends..." Orochimaru sighed beginning to lose his patience.

"Look, if in two weeks you still don't want to stay here...We'll send you 'home'...Of course if you want to stay here you're free to. Also you're welcome to leave the room."

"But the doors are locked."

"I'll leave them unlocked. Just don't get in anyone's way."

"F-fine...I agree to those terms..." Orochimaru smirked, he knew he could do it, it had just taken a bit of patience...He stood from the chair and left the room with that unnerving smirk still on his face scaring the heck out of his ninja as he passed.

"Aurea, I want you to keep an eye on the child, make sure he doesn't get into trouble, and if he does keep people from scaring him, I want our best foot forward..." Orochimaru said his disturbing smirk still there.

"Y-yes, Lord Orochimaru," She said before leaving down the hall on the ceiling...

TBC

Heelllooo readers! I'm Bubblekins1010 as you probably know, if you don't then…Meet me by reading my profile! I have a little bit about me there…ANYWAYS, I hope you enjoyed this! There will be an idea of when I'm going to update on-going stories at the bottom of my profile! *Waves* Ta-ta for now!

My plan for this is to try and update every weekend, so then it'll be fairly consistent. This _is_ a nearly completed story.


	2. And so two weeks go by

Don't own, can't sue.

Little note, this story, so far as I can tell, will end on a bittersweet note. So if you're going to hate me, then I'm warning you now not to (Or at least try not to), because I JUST warned you.

Son of the Snake

Chapter 2

And so two weeks go by

* * *

Naruto walked down a hall, he already didn't like it here, it was too dark, and he wanted to see some sunlight, and trees he really wanted to see trees, not to mention everyone he saw looked like ghosts, probably because of the lack of sunlight. Oh and was it mentioned he was lost? I don't think so. Yea, he was lost.

* * *

5 ft. 7 in, about 12 years old, green eyes, tawny brown hair to the waist, ninja boots, sleek grey pants, sleeveless light gray shirt, dull yellow cloth tied around the neck, sound headband holding her hair back, and nails painted a bloody crimson, this was Aurea Kimichi, she saw the boy lost so she decided to show up randomly around the corner. She walked gracefully, letting the blonde boy knock into her, catching him before he actually hit the ground.

"Oh sorry, I hadn't seen you there!" He said.

"It's alright, are you lost or something."

"Well actually yea…Do you know how to get back to my room by chance?"

"Yes I do. Come with me." She said grabbing his hand and leading him through the many corridors. Finally they stopped in front of the door, and she opened it, Naruto found it was his room… "Would you like me to see if I can take you out for a walk later?"

"Like above ground in the light?!" He asked excitedly.

"If that's what you want…And well if your father says it's alright…"

"Are there a lot of trees around?" He asked.

"Yes…After a bit of walking there are many trees around. I'll have to see if we can go out for a while…"

* * *

Hiruzen sighed, _he_ was going to die in the afterlife at this rate…And he figured he completely deserved it too…He had not only let Naruto get attacked, mistreated, and kidnapped. But he was afraid he would never be able to find the poor kid again. He sighed; standing up writing up a note and putting it on the door, so the next person to enter his office would find it. Then he took off his robes exposing his armor, and jumped out the window.

* * *

Aurea returned about ten minutes later with a smile. For some reason the blond boy had that effect on…Well anyone he met really…Not that there were a lot of people to meet, most of them spent all their time on missions so they could keep buying more weapons, and food, the entire village was connected, even if only Oto nin knew that tiny fact. There were crawlspaces deep underground that could only be opened by the correct sound based jutsu. Those crawl spaces also happened lead to their pantries, and kitchens, they had figured why not make use of the space, and it had worked out well.

"Well...?" Naruto asked.

"Four things; first of all I've been assigned the task of watching you, switching out with Kabuto when he's here. Second you have to have dinner with Lord Orochimaru...And the last two your father will explain during dinner."

"He has to earn that title before it should be used..." Naruto said quietly.

"I see...Well...I won't use it I guess...At least not yet."

* * *

"Ah. Naruto, how are you feeling?"

"Homesick..."

"Hmm...Not much of an answer but I guess I'll have to work with it...I heard you like ramen so I had some made...But you aren't going to eat just ramen, it's not healthy, you'll have to eat some fruits and vegetables as well."

"What?! B-b-b-b-b-but...Ramen..." Naruto managed to stutter out. But Orochimaru ignored him and began speaking again.

"Tomorrow I would like to train you for a while, then after training Aurea is allowed to take you out for a walk, above ground like you want but...You will lose that privilege if you try to escape..." He said. Naruto shifted nervously at the tone.

"I-I never go back on my word...I promised I would stay here for two weeks. So I will..."

"Good...So how were your academy grades looking?"

Naruto thought about it; He wasn't doing really bad...But it wasn't at all good either. His chakra control sucked, his jutsu were hard to do even the basics, academically...He sucked; and his reading and writing skills...they sucked too... But it wasn't _exactly_ his fault...Maybe he could have studied the books a bit more, but his physical training took a lot of time and effort, and he get small results so he tended to do more physical than mental...Not to mention he was lacking the single most important skill to reading books...The ability to read...

"Well...To put it simply...They sucked."

"That will be worked on. What was your biggest trouble?"

"Pretty much everything,"

* * *

Hiruzen sighed in relief when he found Jiraiya.

"Sensei...? What are you doing away from your paperwork?"

"I'm out here to help you for a few days...I know Orochimaru. He would be somewhere we wouldn't expect him to be."

"Like underground?"

"Possibly; why did you instantly think of underground?"

"One of my spies found an underground village. It was very small, maybe one-one-hundredth of Konoha. But it was a village."

"I see. Was there anyone there?"

"No. By the time he had made it in it was abandoned. Somehow they all got out, and maybe we can use that to try to find Orochimaru...And probably Naruto..."

"So there were people there...Right before he entered."

"Yes. He must've been seen or something. But my point is...They got out without being seen, they must've had an escape route, and there might be a trail there. I've spent all day looking around the place."

"What if there are more? Maybe instead we should be scouring the area for more underground villages. Or at least their escape route,"

"I'd already thought of that...I even looked in every nook and cranny of that forest, But I didn't find anything."

Hiruzen sighed; they were getting nowhere.

* * *

Aurea stood leaning back on the wall. She would have been gone several minutes ago but Naruto had really wanted her to stay. She finally gave in after a puppy dog look...A puppy dog look that she doubted even Orochimaru could stand up too...She suppressed a giggle at the thought of Orochimaru giving into a puppy dog look...No. _Thee_ puppy dog look. She started to leave when Naruto began snoring, and slowly she crept out of the room. Once the door was finally closed she sighed deciding to go to bed.

* * *

Naruto sat up. Somehow an alarm clock had appeared beside his bed overnight...It read 7 a.m. He got up out of bed and went to the closet to find some clothes to get dressed. He chose his old clothes, they were good for mobility, and already in pretty bad shape. He jumped slightly when Aurea opened the door and entered.

"Here, these are for you, Lord Orochimaru is going to be busy for another fifteen minutes and wants you to practice with them." She said tossing a weapons holster to the young boy. He caught it a bit clumsily and looked inside his eyes widening at the high grade material.

"These are really nice." He said.

"Yea...Well come on, let's get to where you can practice." She said taking his hand and beginning to lead him down the hall, after a few minutes and about a hundred corners- none of which Naruto remembered- they entered a large forest area, with a huge glass window at the top letting in enough light for the plants to grow. There were all sorts of things, trees, bushes, moss, fruit trees, berry plants. It was amazing to see something like it in an underground fortress. He looked around him in wonder while Aurea kept moving him forward. Finally they stopped.

"This is the tree you'll be aiming at." She said grabbing a bottle of spray paint she did a gold dot in the middle then did a blue ring around it, then a red ring, and then she took out a paintbrush and made a tiny black dot in the middle of the gold dot. "You have to try and hit the gold dot, that's your goal for now." She said waving her hand in front of the paint drying it quicker.

"Alright; better move your hand!" He said. Aurea stepped back a couple steps, and Naruto threw a shuriken, it grazed the blue paint but still hit the red area of the target. He threw again, this time getting a few centimeters closer.

"Better." Aurea said, clapping a bit. "But you still have a long way to go."

"I can do better..."

"Try to. It's good." Naruto took another shuriken and in an invisible movement it was gone and smack dab in the black dot.

"Interesting," A voice purred from behind. "You aim better when you modify the movement, and put more speed behind it..." He said. Naruto felt a little shiver go down his spine. "Aurea you can go for now. Come back in about an hour and a half."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru." She said leaving. Orochimaru took a step forward.

"Take out a shuriken; I want you to show me exactly how _you_ throw it."

"O-ok..." He agreed taking one out and making the movement landing it exactly on the spike of the last one.

"Slower..." Naruto did the movement slowly. "Good...Hn...So, now what can I teach you...I know, let's start with chakra control."

An hour later...

"Good. That's so much better now, let's try the clone again,"

"Can we take a break?"

"Only half an hour left, and then you can go for your walk."

"Alright..."

"Good, now I want one clone."

"Ok, ok..." He said sighing.

Half an hour later...

Aurea got back exactly an hour and a half later to find Naruto passed out, and Orochimaru waiting.

"Take him back to his room. You can take him for a walk later..."

"Y-yes Lord Orochimaru," Aurea said picking Naruto up.

"Oh, and take him as far as he wants on that walk, so long as it's the opposite direction from that town, I've heard some people I used to know are searching for him."

"May I ask who is looking?"

"My old sensei; Hiruzen Sarutobi and Jiraiya; my old teammate," He said bitterly. Aurea left, embedding that information in her mind and remembering everything about the two so she would know if she ran into them.

* * *

Naruto woke up his sight slightly bleary; luckily it was pretty dark so his eyes didn't have to adjust much. Finally he could see better and his eyes picked Aurea's from out of the shadows.

"Aurea...?" He asked. She started, and jumped up from her wall sitting...Which she had fallen asleep doing...

"You're awake. Did you still want to go for that walk?" She asked.

"Yea!" Naruto said, getting out of bed, and getting dressed. Aurea chuckled quietly at his energy and excitement.

"You don't have to rush, it'll still be light for a little over three hours. We have plenty of time to walk out a ways then rest for a few minutes and come back."

"I know! But I'm so excited to see the sun! And I mean actually see it, not have light coming through glass!"

"Alright." Aurea agree, deciding not to fight a battle she didn't think she could win. "Well, now that you're ready, we can go."

"Yay!" He said in delight, skipping after the slightly grinning young woman.

_'Hee, hee! He's so full of energy, so cheerful, so...innocent...I wonder when the last time I acted so innocent was...? Three maybe four years?'_ "Longer?" She whispered to herself. Naruto had suddenly stopped as he bumped into someone. She recognized him as one of her teammates -Inagu; he looked slightly panicked, but definitely didn't miss the 60 pound seven year old walking into him, for a second his eyes said he was now angry. She could tell he was about to yell at the young boy, but she managed to signal him from behind not to say a word "Or else" was the threat no one in Oto had to finish, they all knew the usual penalty for failing a task given by Orochimaru. Luckily Kabuto was more forgiving... In a way...

"Hello." Inagu said. The only hint of his anger resting in his eyes, but still he inserted a friendly tone into his voice. "You must be Naruto." He said.

"Y-yes... Sorry for knocking into you like that..." He said, his voice sounding pathetically weak. The anger seemed to melt out of Inagu's eyes.

"It's alright, I admittedly knocked into you too...I'm Inagu."

Now Aurea cut into the conversation. "Hello Inagu. What's wrong? You look worried."

"I have to report to Lord Orochimaru about something..."

"Ok well...Naruto and I were just going for a walk so, we'll see you later."

"Ok." He agreed, and then walked away.

"How do you know him?"

"He's one of my teammates."

"Oh." He said following her as she went down about another hundred corridors, finally he saw light, and dashed ahead quickly climbing up a tree to get a better look of the sky. "Wow! This is a great view! Aurea you should come up here and look! There's a bunch of birdies!" He said excitedly looking around from the top of the forest. The wind ruffled his hair a bit as he sat there smiling like a child should, and completely happy. Aurea appeared behind him and looked around herself. Being underground all the time made you used to the dark, you didn't like to think about the sky, it was irrelevant- it was dark underground. But standing at the top of a tree looking at it made her feel free in a way. No one ever felt free underground, it felt like you were being suffocated, or worse crushed. Something chirped right in her ear.

"You're right there are birds up here." She said. She did a few hand seals, and held out a finger, a bird then hopped onto it, and she sat down. "Look at this little bird."

"Wow! Birdie!" He exclaimed, looking at it in wonder. "How did you get it on your finger like that?!"

"Yes." She said letting her lips tremble into a little smile. _'Now's my chance…If I tell him how I got it on my finger like that, maybe it'll help convince him to stay here...Because the truth is that I really have started to like him around, even after a couple days.'_ "I used a sound jutsu."

"Oh."

Aurea put the little bird back on its original tree branch. "Well, we should probably go, we have a while to take our walk, and then we have to get back, before its dark. Ok?"

"Ok." Naruto agreed starting to climb down. Once they were down they went to the east, and Aurea carried him up the steep incline leading to the top of a cliff. After several hours of talking, watching the land below as the sun set, and then at Naruto's insistence, and Aurea's caving, looking at the stars.

* * *

"This has been the best day ever!" He said weakly, half asleep, as Aurea piggy backed him down from the cliff.

"Well...Maybe we'll have to go outside again."

"Yea…"

* * *

The next week passed well, Aurea grew more attached by the hour, while Naruto grew from Orochimaru's daily training, and while he was happy, he still didn't feel he belonged. He still thought about all his friends that were back in Konoha…That's when Kabuto came back…

He doesn't hate it here, but he doesn't like it either, he still feels an attachment to the people he knows from back home…"

"Would you like me to precede with the memory…rearrangement…?"

"I believe that would be best, send Aurea here in the meantime."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru."

* * *

"Aurea; come here for a moment."

"Uh, yes?"

"Lord Orochimaru wishes to see you."

"O-ok," She said uncertainly, then strode away in a manner that was hurried but not rushed.

* * *

Kabuto now turned his attention to Naruto. It was late, and Aurea had just been putting him to sleep. "Perfect, it'll make it all the easier."

* * *

Aurea walked down the hall towards Orochimaru. She didn't really like Kabuto. He was creepy, and his eyes were ice. Aside from common belief, not all Oto nin were cold as ice, even if they acted like it in battle. The ones that were, gave them the bad appearance. She made it to Orochimaru and knelt in respect.

"Aurea...We need to talk about the boy..."

"What about him?"

"Well..."

* * *

Kabuto took the young boy and lifted him off the bed, then promptly left the room and went to one of his labs.

* * *

"He is still too attached to his village. His few friends back there are holding his mind there. So Kabuto is going to erase those people from his mind. The memories will be locked away, allowing him to live here...I was wondering, how you would feel about having him as your little brother, in a sense."

"You're going to tamper with his mind?"

"Yes, or would you like him to go back to that despicable village forever," He looked into her eyes and saw that she wanted to object. "If you must, object it, and I'll hear what you want to say."

"But Lord Orochimaru…Tampering…Mind, isn't that taking it a bit far? I mean he's only seven, still only a child,"

"True…But that is why it has to be done. If you'd like you can read the copies of the incident reports." Orochimaru said pointing to the foot tall pile of files. She took one look, and finally nodded in submission.


	3. Introduction to Naruto Kimichi

I don't own.

At the edge of the lake in Bubblekins1010's mind~

Orochimaru: He is mine! The Jinchuriki is mine! *Knocks into metal closet Naruto from AM, Kitty Minato, Shikamaru, and Shikaku are cowering in*

Jiraiya: You can't sit in that boat forever evil writer!

Out in the boat in the middle of the lake, under a force field~

Bubblekins1010: Are you so sure Old Man?! Besides I have all you Ninja wrapped in Duct tape, and all Chidori users knocked out!

Jiraiya: But what about the sharks that have been circling you for nearly three days?

Bubblekins1010: Oh those guys? They're my guards!

Son of the Snake

Chapter 3

Introduction to Naruto Kimichi-

Naruto sat up and clutched his head, for a reason he couldn't explain it was throbbing, it wouldn't stop.

"Ow…"

"You hit your head earlier, and it knocked you out, that's probably why you don't remember." Kabuto said from beside him.

"Where's…Aurea?" He asked quietly.

"She was sent on a mission for a week. I'll be taking care of you until she gets back. Then we've agreed she'll take care of you until I get back, and we can both be doing missions." He said and sat back. "Also…It's been two weeks…Now it's time for you to decide."

"Oh…" He sat there contemplating. As he remembered…He had no one. And considering the state his apartment was in, he had nothing of value.

"So what have you decided? If you want to go back to the little village, I'll just have to tell Lord Orochimaru…And we'll leave you outside the gates with no memory of what occurred here. Or…You can stay with us, and we will take very good care of you."

"I…I…I've been thinking about it… and… I… I…I want to stay. People here appreciate me, and my skills, and don't hate me for existing! I want that! I hate being hated for no reason!"

"Well then…I healed the bruise on your head…Do you want to go and train?"

"Let's go!"

2 years later…

"Hey…Dad…Why do you wear makeup?"

"What do you mean-?"

"Is that purple eye shadow? And why are there girly looking clothes in your closet, and what's with the face mask?" Orochimaru was quickly becoming annoyed by the questions, and he didn't feel the need to admit such an important secret as his immortality to a 9 year old.

"Naruto…I want you to go to you room, or stop asking me these ridiculous questions."

"Yes dad…" He said. Quieting down as he waited for the two ninja that wanted to be a part of the 'village'.

3 years later…

Naruto dropped down from the perch he'd taken on the bridge, and caused the fighting to stop. He was unrecognizable even by Kakashi, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Sakura. Not that any of them had really taken a good look at him anyways. He was dressed in black, all black, from head to foot, and everything but his eyes were invisible in the clothes, and the cloak he wore, but even his eye's seemed to have become ice blue, instead of their cheery sky blue.

"Zabuza, Haku, pull out. You can't win against them; we'll have to send you elsewhere."

Haku and Zabuza closed their eyes, and thought on the cold slightly girly voice. Finally they had completely made sure it was Naruto, and left with him.

Kakashi stood there, reaching out with his senses to try and feel the chakra signature, he had barely gotten a small taste of it, and recognized it a small amount. But it was too late, they were too far away. Tazuna began working again, hoping they were now safe. But it wasn't to be as a presence appeared behind him. Kakashi took the black clad boy, and pulled him away before he could do anything. But Zabuza and Haku were now going after the genin…He grabbed Tazuna by his shirt, and carried him to the genin, having Sakura and Sasuke watch him, while he and Shikamaru took the frontlines.

Meanwhile Naruto was now under the bridge keeping them busy with his Shadow Clone. He did the necessary hand signs and slammed his hand down on the thin beam he was balancing on.

"Summon!" A miniscule snake appeared and he nodded. It slithered up the beam and onto the bridge un-noticed by everyone. By the time Tazuna felt it bite his wrist, it was too late. Naruto had sent a snake that was tiny for sure, but it was one of the deadliest he could summon; and he knew by the time Zabuza, and Haku were out of harm's way in two short minutes, the bridge builder would be dead.

A day later…

"Naruto…Next time, you take point. Not Zabuza, no offence to him, but he's not got any tactical skills at all." Haku said panting after the day long dash away from their assignment. Zabuza glared fiercely at the insult.

3 Years before…

A man, and a little girl about Naruto's age walked in; escorted by Aurea, Inagu, and their last teammate, Michiru.

The man knelt in front of Orochimaru. "I am Zabuza Momochi, and this is my pupil, Haku. We wish to join you, and your village."

"Is that so?" Naruto stayed sitting in the seat he was in silent, and stoic; or at least on the outside. On the inside, he was cheering, finally he had someone his age around. Well so long as they passed the test.

"If that's true, you won't mind being searched, and striped of anything that might resemble any sort of way of communication."

"Not at all," Zabuza said. Haku looked a bit unsettled, but held her tongue all the same.

"Alright then…I'll allow you to join our village. But if you happen to ever sway in your loyalty…You will be punished…" Naruto sat there doing his best to look completely calm on the outside, but he was about to burst as inside of him there was a celebration, finally he would have someone his age, someone that wouldn't reject him!

Present…

"L-Let's go...I want to make sure that Jounin doesn't follow us. He could be dangerous, and I didn't like that Sharingan he has."

"Alright, you're point." Haku said. Zabuza had to agree with that decision, he didn't have a very good sense of direction, if it wasn't for Haku; he would have been lost to the world a long time ago.

"Alright, let's move!" the blonde said jumping into the trees.

"Sheesh, you don't have to yell kid." Zabuza muttered.

"Move it Momochi!" he commanded.

"Yes sir…"

* * *

Kakashi sighed. This wasn't good, their first C-rank, and they had failed it. Sakura and Sasuke needed more training, Shikamaru had been doing fine, but _his_ students… Well, they kind of made him feel shameful. And then there was the question of who the ninja in black was. _'I know that chakra signature from somewhere, I only felt it for a moment though…I need a better sense of it, but they're probably long gone by now; dangit!'_

* * *

Naruto sat down on his new bed. Their base had been moved again- it seemed that Jiraiya had been getting too close to him, again, luckily everyone was always able to get out, since they all knew the right jutsu, or if it was the prisoners, they were taken by their guards. The next base down the line was as usual very different in the way of entrances. The last one had a simple hole in the ground, with a giant boulder over it, the next one…

* * *

"_That tree right there," The blonde said going over to it and tapping apiece of bark. A perfectly seamless door opened, and they entered soundlessly. "Do you like it?"_

"_It's a very interesting design." Zabuza said._

"_Thanks, I thought of it."_

"_Very good, I wonder where Kabuto has gone this time; luckily though he should be back for the exam."_

'The exam,'_ the talk of the 'village'; the one thing every shinobi in the village in two months would be a part of. And they knew they could win the battle. They had superior forces and…_

"_I have to admit, I feel a small amount of pity for Suna, considering what we're going to do to them."_

"_I agree… But they had it coming, and maybe next time they won't be so naive as to trust someone just because they look like someone they think they can trust, I mean, they're a shinobi village for goodness sake." Haku said._

"_Humph, you've got that right."_

"_Not that I don't enjoy listening to you chatting, but I'm going to go report." Zabuza said. The two nodded and carried on with their conversation, while he left._

"_But I guess it's not really their fault, they think it's their Kage, who would ever think to betray their leader; and the person that could have them killed."_

"_Exactly," Naruto said, nodding his approval. "That's why this plan is so ingenious."_

* * *

Naruto laid back on the bed and pulled his feet up sighing with fatigue, slowly he allowed himself to drift to sleep.

Meanwhile…

Hiruzen sighed as team seven entered his office.

"So that's how it went," He said, not even bothering to tone his voice with a question, he could tell by their faces that it was a failed mission. He banged his head on his desk, much to their surprise. "Great, a new mound of paperwork to deal with... Not to mention…" He stopped, catching himself before he let an S-Class secret loose among the genin.

"Kakashi, there's something we have to talk about; it's about _him_, the rest of you need to leave."

"Who is this 'him' you always talk to Kakashi about?!" Sasuke demanded, as he always did when the Old Hokage did this.

"None of your business," Kakashi said, pushing the three genin out, and closing the door.

"I've gotten word from Jiraiya…He found something that might confirm his suspicions…"

"About Naruto; but…Gosh, what did he find?"

"I gave him this when he passed a test with a good score, and then added to it when he passed more tests. Jiraiya found it when he was searching the most previous base…He has him, but we aren't sure under what terms."

"I am requesting permission to assist Master Jiraiya for a couple weeks, until the exams; at with point I want my team to enter."

"After failing this mission,"

"Yes, I know they'll make it out alive if nothing else, but it'll give them experience with battle, experience they won't ever get if they're stuck doing C and D ranks. They need this, and they've done over the required 14 missions."

"I see… Well it's a good thing you told me now, because I was planning on having that meeting in three days."

"Great. Thank you, I'll be back in time for the exams."

"I'll probably come to help you and Jiraiya search in a few weeks, just for a few days before I have more cursed paperwork to deal with." Hiruzen said.

Kakashi chuckled. "It doesn't look like you'll be done anytime soon at this rate…"

The door banged open and three genin spilled into the room.

"Great, you heard all that didn't you?"

* * *

Naruto woke up with a start as Aurea banged on his door. He cringed, knowing she only banged on his door that hard when she was angry or worried…And he had a hunch that she was angry, something about hair dye in place of her shampoo…

"NARUTO! GET YOUR BUTT OUT HERE NOW!" She screamed almost ready to break his door down…Again…Except this time, he didn't have another door to get out…So he worked through his options, and decided the best one was to face her like a man. (For once)

"Coming," He called; he did his best not to appear frightened when he opened the door to find his older sister clad in a towel, and red faced while bright red hair hung to her waist area. "I have to admit, I was going for a more secluded red, but I think that fits you better, I love it!" He said fully admitting to it.

"You- I'm- DIE!" She screamed taking three Kunai and throwing them, they caught his clothing and pinned him to the wall. She pulled out five more and finished pinning him. "I'm satisfied, alright little brother, I've gotten my revenge, now I need to know; is this permanent hair dye?"

"No. It'll come out after about six months."

"SIX MONTHS, NA-RU-TO!"

Just then Orochimaru entered having heard the sounds coming from his children's rooms. He took in Aurea in a towel with tomato red hair, and Naruto pinned to the wall with well aimed Kunai, and resisted the urge to smirk, groan, and chuckle all that the same time.

"I see…" That all he said before turning around, and going back to his throne to discuss the exams with Zabuza; who was waiting for him to return.

* * *

Woot woot! I've made it through chapter three! Finally! Ya'll happy with how it's going? I think I'm going to pick up the pace a little though, it's been moving pretty slowly. Oh and before I forget! Kabuto, Haku, and Naruto are all on the same team, Zabuza is their sensei, but it's complicated, since Naruto is Orochimaru's son- though adoptively- he has a lot of power over others, so he can be rude and commanding sometimes, even to his sensei as you read; just had to explain that for you quick.


	4. The Quickly Approaching Exams

Oh my gosh! This story, and others in fact, have become so depressing; it's kind of scary! Anyways here's chapter 4! Enjoy!

*In Apple Jack accent from My Little Pony* I don' own notin' but the plot, and any OC's so no suin' me! Ya hear?!

Son of the Snake

Chapter 4

The Quickly Approaching Exams

* * *

Naruto packed the miniscule amount of possessions he had. No one ever had many, and they always went with them when they went on missions so that they could keep secretive about their operations, the only person in the village that had more than a bag worth of things, was Orochimaru, and he only had paperwork, but it was all hidden in a room off to the side of one of the escape tunnels. He shouldered his bag which contained two extra changes of clothes, thread, a needle, newly made weapons, a large amount of concealed weapons, another black cloak, and various other things he needed. Luckily he was able to use some of Aurea's make up while he was gone, to cover up the whiskers when he was out in the open. He left his room, meeting up with his team, Kabuto and Haku having been there before him. They were now waiting for their sensei…

"She's taking forever!" Naruto said already impatient.

"Naruto, it's been five minutes… Didn't you pass her room on your way here?" Haku asked.

"No, I've been trying to avoid her since I dyed her hair, I mean after that lecture, and then leaving me pinned to the wall for nearly a week…"

"You deserved it little brother." She said, walking up to them. Their eyes widened at her hair, it was still tomato red sure, but now it was short, draping around her head, only going to her shoulders. She smiled.

"But, you know, I've kind of taken a liking to this hair color, I've packed some more of it for when it starts to fade."

"Really,"

"Yes really. I've grown attached to the color; I'll probably leave it this way, and just cover it up with a bandana. During the… operation,"

"Ok. Well, we should get moving." Kabuto said, pushing himself off the wall.

"Yea," Naruto agreed.

Three days later…

Konohamaru jumped over the fence running from Iruka, he had been pranking an ANBU, and had been caught, but snuck away, now his teacher had found him and was trying to drag him in for the day's lesson, in fact, he wasn't the only one running, Udon, and Moegi were with him.

"You'll never catch us!" Konohamaru sung, still running, they flipped a corner, and dropped into a manhole, hitting the bottom with a clunk, Iruka passed them by, having missed their disappearance from the street, and being unable to sense their chakra.

"Where did those kids go," He muttered carrying on. The three kids used chakra to climb up the walls, and go back through the manhole. They walked away meeting team seven, and talking with them too, they carried on through the village, until…

"Ouch!" Konohamaru said, bumping someone and falling back onto his behind.

"Watch where you're going kid," A black clad Ninja said, grabbing his scarf and dropping him on his feet.

"W-wait, who are you? You obviously aren't from our village, you're all wearing different headbands; you shouldn't be in the village!" Sakura said, accusingly.

They all held up cards and Haku spoke up. "In fact miss pinky, were allowed; we're here for the chunnin exams." She said.

"O-oh… I should've known then… I'm sorry." She said.

"It's fine. Now if you'll excuse us, our sensei is waiting for us in the hotel, and she might get a little bit upset if we're late…" Kabuto said. Naruto just stood there saying nothing.

"A-alright,"

"Thank you. We'll see you at the exams." Haku said, trying to make up for Naruto's cold behavior. The black clad ninja walked away, ignoring the fact that there were people around him, though he walked calmly all the same.

"Hey you; you're the one that sabotaged our mission, what's your name!" Sasuke yelled after him, Naruto didn't even turn. Sasuke growled, "I was talking to you!"

"I know, and I don't care." Naruto said still not turning towards him. Sasuke didn't exactly like being ignored and rushed towards him, a fist ready to punch, until he was right behind his 'opponent', and his hand was caught less than an inch from the back of Naruto's head, he tried to punch him with his other fist, only for that to be caught as well, his arms were moved, and Naruto flipped around, icy eyes glaring at him. "Attacking from behind is quite predictable. If you want to keep being respected as the last Uchiha, you should probably stop throwing a tantrum every time someone ignores you." He said, dropping Sasuke's hands and turning back around.

"Grrr, dangit; just give me your name already!"

"No," He walked away, and Kabuto went in the same icy manor. Haku walked by, looking at them a bit apologetically before following. She went up behind the black clad ninja and stealthily tucked some golden hair under the fabric he had covering him.

"You missed that little tuft again." she reminded him quietly.

"Oh, oops," he said, grinning sheepishly under his mask. But Sasuke was staring; he had seen the tuft of hair; it was gold, and the eyes were blue, his voice as well was familiar to the blonde idiot…

"Could it be…?" he asked himself quietly. He disappeared when Sakura turned around, and headed towards the Hokage's office.

* * *

Hiruzen stared sadly at the bracelet on his desk. It had several charms on it, and he could just feel the chakra of its owner, slightly evil, but for the most part, untainted. He jumped up when his door burst open, and Sasuke entered, the secretary hot on his heels, in an attempt to stop him.

"I have to talk with you!" he said.

"Well, that's kind of obvious by the way you slammed my door open." the Old Hokage said, sliding the bracelet back into the secret drawer he kept it in, and waving the secretary out.

"It's about Naruto,"

"Naruto, what's going on?"

"I'm pretty sure I know where he is!"

"Please, enlighten me."

"He's here, in the village; for the exams."

"And how do you know this?"

"I met him, and his team. The same eyes, though a little bit colder, same hair, and about the same voice, if not, then it's slightly more girly. And that's not all…"

"What else?"

"He also happens to be one that sabotaged _it_…" Sasuke said tersely. He refused to speak of the failed C-rank, so instead he called the mission an, it; much like Tora.

"You can go." Sasuke nodded and left. Hiruzen meanwhile hung his head, "Orochimaru, what have you done…"

* * *

Aurea had been pacing, and in turn left a worn spot on the carpet, and when asked about it she just said "I'll tell you over dinner." then she went to her room, and wore a hole in the carpet there. Finally all three genin teamed up on her at once.

"What is wrong?!" Naruto asked.

"Inagu," she answered, sitting on the bed. "His squad-group, it was found out, and no one's sure who did and didn't escape." she looked down. Now the 'genin' team could tell why she was so restless; considering her fiancé was missing; he had proposed on her birthday this year when she turned 17.

"Oh," was all that was said, and at the moment it was all anyone could say about it. Kabuto finally left after two or three minutes, and Haku left a few minutes after him; leaving Naruto and Aurea alone in the room; they said nothing, and both stayed as still as stone, the only sound was their breathing as they communicated without doing, or saying anything.

Earlier- in the Hokage's office…

Hiruzen read the letter Jiraiya had sent in reply to his own.

**Are you sure? You're sure it's him? You're really, really, really, really, really, really, really, sure?**

**I mean, I had been planning on coming to the village for the third part of the exam, but I think I might just come for the last two parts. I can visit my spies in between…**

**So you're really sure? This isn't some kind of cruel joke?**

The Old Man chuckled, and pulled out a piece of paper.

**No, this is not a cruel joke. I'm pretty sure Naruto **_**is**_** here. I would just like you to make sure. I'm too easy to spot to find out, so I'm really hoping you can investigate. So, I'll see you whenever you get to the village, stop by my office before you do anything though.**

He gave the letter to Gamakichi, and the little red toad disappeared.

* * *

Naruto couldn't stand it... It was too silent, he finally left the room and went to the room him and Kabuto would be sharing. Kabuto was already sleeping, but opened one eye when his teammate entered.

"Any information on where he is?" He asked.

"No…Nothing; but this better clear up before the end of the exams."

"No kidding, I mean can you imagine taking her home in that state?"

"Not really…"

Naruto sighed, beginning remove the black fabric covering his head. "Completely off topic; have any idea when you'll get me that hair dye?"

"No; I haven't got a clue."

The blonde sighed again; taking off the black legwarmers he had been wearing to cover his ankles, then removing his boots, and gloves. Underneath, his skin could be considered unhealthily pale; nearly white. Though considering everyone from his village looked the same, no one cared, including himself; but even so, Kabuto found the nerve to comment on it.

"You look paler then last time I saw…And that was about a month ago."

"Well woopty doo. I'm tired, and worried, so I'm going to go to sleep." He said discarding the rest of his black clothing, and showing a full set of thin azure clothes underneath, complete with a hood he could tighten around his face -and more importantly- his hair. Since the golden color reflected so much light, and never seemed to dull, he knew it stuck out like a sore thumb, and had to be covered.

Kabuto rolled over smirking at his teammate's reaction. "Very well…We will go to sleep, good night Naruto."

The blonde sighed tightening his hood. "Good night Kabuto."

One week later…

"YOU LITTLE BRAT I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

"AHHHH! HAKU SAVE ME!"

"Hmmm…It's tempting…But…it's to entertaining to stop."

"I concur…" Kabuto said, as they stood by the wall watching the chaos. This all started because of Naruto and his prank habits…

"So, how long do you think it'll take for her to catch him with the chair glued to her behind?"

"Don't know. It's hard to tell. I mean she's moving quite well…I'll bet you all the money in my wallet she catches him after five minutes."

"I'll go for that…Within the next three minutes."

"Deal." Kabuto said holding out his hand to her. They shook hands as they continued to watch the chaos.

"I bet four minutes!" Naruto said while still running.

Four minutes later…

"I win! OW! Booyah! OWW! Cough it up! WILL YOU STOP IT ALREADY?!" Naruto shouted at Aurea, and talked smugly towards Haku and Kabuto as they hesitantly emptied their wallets into his bag, where he kept all his money.

"That was so not fair…" Haku whined.

"I'm broke…That was all my money…Period."

"And I'm a lot richer! Yes! RAMEN!" He cheered, almost jumping up, but the chair pinning him to the ground while Aurea kicked him a few times a minute he was stuck. "Can I go get ramen?" He asked giving her…_The look_…The look that even Orochimaru caved under…That she easily caved under…

"Ok…" She said sighing in resignation. Naruto pulled out some alcohol swabs.

"Rub this on the glue and it'll come off." he said, setting out on his quest for ramen…Or trying to…Haku had grabbed his shirt collar, and turned him around.

"You _do_ remember what day it is right?" She asked.

"Uhm…No."

"We've got to get to the place the first exam is going to take place in. Luckily I got everyone up early."

"W-what?! That's today?!"

"Yes."

"Why didn't anyone tell me?!"

"Because you were too busy gluing your sister to her chair, and it was…entertaining…" Kabuto said. Naruto rushed out the door, grabbing his two teammates and dragging them; while Aurea was left to unglue herself from the chair.

* * *

I know! BAD ME! Abrupt ending of chapter- filler- some awkward sentences- bad grammar- I'm a bad girl and I know it! No killing me though! (You don't even know where I live, so there!)

I loopy…Kee hee hee heeeee heeeeee…

EDIT: Sorry for the late update, I didn't even touch my compy yesterday. Anyways see you all next week!


	5. Written Exam

I don't own anything but the plots and OC's (*perfect Tsunade impersonation* so too bad ya' money suckers!)

Bubblekins1010: *Laughs manically*

NOW I EVEN MORE LOOPY! IT PAST 1 A.M.! MWA HA HA HA HA! Orochimaru! You do disclaimer!

Orochimaru: My faithful minion has created this wonderful story so I could kidnap my new son! And all together; WE SHALL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Bubblekins1010: Excellent world domination speech… But you've got to say what I do and don't own…

Orochimaru: Right, my minion does not own anything but the plot and OC's, so don't you dare steal them, or I will summon a snake so fast-

Bubblekins1010: Whoa there! No need to scare all our readers (As of today (9/24/2013) numbering 1) away! I mean without them (Him) I have no inspiration for writing! They inspire me to keep going! SO REVIEW MINION(S)!

Later: Sorry about that…It was late…Or early, however you see it.

Son of the Snake

Chapter 5

Written Exam

* * *

They made it to 'the door', to find a group of genin grouped around it. Not that they cared but...

"It's the Uchiha boy." Kabuto said.

"I don't really care at the moment, so long as he doesn't die. I just want to get to the exam, instead of watching these brats fighting each other." He said walking up the next flight of stairs.

"Wow, he's got quite the grudge doesn't he." Haku said, staring after the blonde, who was once again clad in black.

"Yes…He does." _All the better to manipulate;_ the two went after him and found him waiting for them at the doors to the exam entrance.

"Well… Let's head in." Haku said; trying to forget her teammate's behavior.

"Yea," Naruto grabbed the handles and pulled open the double doors. "Humph, this looks like it'll be easy." He said; true to his word, most of them were either big mindless dummies, or super smart and weaker physically. They had trained mostly one area, while Haku, Kabuto, and himself had trained themselves in both, often reading while they sparred, especially now.

"What did you say newbie?!" One of them yelled, he was chubby- from the half symbol he could see on his headband from Iwa, and looked kind of stupid, but might pass the written exams.

"I said what I meant. And if you know this is my first time taking this exam, then that means you must be on at least your second try through it; as I said, easy."

"Why you little pipsqueak," He yelled enraged as his team showed up behind him, not liking what they were hearing. And though it was true, Naruto was only about four foot three, he was confident nonetheless. The boy charged, at him and Naruto dodged easily, he was assuming there was a no fighting rule and decided it was best to just dodge it and not risk failing the first exam.

_Well…May as well thin out the competition. _"Aw, you're so pathetic, to bad too, I'd wanted a challenge out of this exam." Now that caught the attention of a few other people…Quite a few other people.

"Now you're being too cocky kid!"

"Yea,"

"Let's teach him a lesson,"

Ten minutes later…

Most of the genin that had attacked Naruto were either A: Lying on the ground knocked out. Or B: backed off to take care of their teammates that had lost it due to a sort of brain freeze. None of them were visibly hurt due to Naruto though, so everything was fine.

"Aw, you're all a big bunch of losers," he said. "Next time don't retaliate to taunting." The doors opened and several leaf genin, including team 7 entered. Naruto jumped up into the rafters which his teammates had long ago used when they decided it was safer to vacate the floor.

They watched as the little group of leaf genin talked drawing the attention of those in the room still conscious.

"Aw… Come on Sasuke-kun!" Ino said grabbing him.

"Get off!" he said pushing her away from him.

* * *

"Huh; I wonder who did that…" Shikamaru commented from his little corner he was in with Choji and Kiba.

"I don't want to know; whoever it is might come after us next if we found out." Kiba said.

"Yea, I agree; it'd be too troublesome."

"Yea…I'm going to agree with the two of you."

"So now I have to wonder if whoever it was is one of the ninja hiding in the rafters." Kiba noted. Haku dropped her head into view, and gave the Inuzuka a look. And said boy could tell why, he heard someone cursing above him now, one of them up there was upset he'd found him out… _Wait- that voice…I know it from somewhere…Wait I know who it is…But then what is he doing up there, hiding from us?_ "Is it really…"

"Huh? Did you say something Kiba?" Choji asked.

"I…" _That voice…_ "No, it's nothing. I was just thinking about something." _It can't be; I'm probably just imagining it._

"Alright then,"

"Aw it's probably too troublesome to deal with." Shikamaru said dully, almost asleep. Choji sat him down and let the smaller boy use his shoulder as a pillow.

* * *

"Hey NK,"

"Why are you calling- oh," he had started to ask why she'd called him NK, but realized it was because of where they were, if Konoha found out he'd been alive all this time, and plotting against them…

"Anyways…I think we should stay up here…And that little tuft has gotten out again!" She said walking in a crouch towards Naruto…On the ceiling, and tucking that hair back in.

"You know Haku, it's not going to stay there, if it comes out again we will have to cut it." Kabuto said.

"Wha- no!"

"Why not," Haku asked.

"Because I like it," he protested weakly.

"If it jeopardizes us then it will go." Kabuto said matter of factly.

"-! HAKU!" He yelled as loudly as possible without alerting anyone to their presence, after Haku ripped the tuft out and cut it with some scissors made of ice, before depositing it all in an ice cube that wouldn't melt for another ten hours so Naruto could do what he wanted with it. "You're both cruel." He pouted.

"Well… Do we want to go offer the little newbies some advice?" Kabuto purred, "They are making a _quite_ a scene…"

"Whatever you want to do," Naruto said, "Haku can even go with you if she wants; but I'm staying put- right here." he said moving a bit deeper into the room and sitting in the rafters.

"Alright- what do you say Haku?"

"If I don't go you're liable to make enemies…I mean seriously, you make enemies without ever meeting someone, who's to say you won't make enemies out of people you _do_ meet." she said. "And since NK is for once sitting quietly where he isn't going to cause trouble I have nothing to worry about…"

"Alright…I'll probably be here when you come back… Unless the proctor finds me up here, at which point you won't miss my scream to alert you to the fact." Naruto said sarcastically rolling his eyes at being treated like a puppy. The two went to the least populated area of the room and dropped before walking over to the small group. Sakura and Sasuke went on high alert as they approached, and glared slightly. Shikamaru was also looking wary of them when Choji had dragged him up from his nap, due to Sakura and Sasuke's alarming reactions.

"Hello again," Kabuto said.

"Where's you other teammate?" Sasuke asked harshly, noticing Naruto's absence.

"Mmm…Sulking in the rafters after Haku was supposedly cruel to him." Kabuto said, still using his calm, and 'inviting' purr.

"You were in on it to Yakushi!" Naruto yelled from the rafters.

"So what are you doing down here?"

"He was simply too annoying to put up with anymore." Haku said grinning as Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs but didn't leave the rafters. "And luckily he pissed everyone in the room off, so he's too scared to come down out of the rafters."

"AM NOT, I'M JUST TOO SMART TO COME DOWN!"

"Blah, blah, blah," Kabuto mused; smirking at Naruto's slowly rising temper. "Anyways… I've had some experience with the exam, and have a little help to offer."

"He's actually tried it six times. This is seventh try." Haku said.

"But you see that means he really won't have any good info, 'cause he's failed it six times." Sasuke said reasonably.

"Not quite; I was held back by my old team all times. I wasn't going to abandon them. Unfortunately they died." He said mater of factly. Truth was they had been assigned another genin, and Kabuto had been put on Naruto's team to watch and make sure he could be successfully manipulated.

"Well…The point is, I haven't been doing nothing this entire time. I've been collecting information on the genin. If you'd like I can show you some." Kabuto said.

"Yea right; you're the ones who sabotaged our mission," Sakura argued uncertainly.

"I see…"

"Alright, well I guess we'll just go put up with the angry idiot." Haku mused as they retreated back to the unoccupied corner of the room, and went back into the rafters.

"The proctor's coming…" Naruto said grinning madly.

"He's com-?" Haku was cut off by a giant poof as the proctor and several chunnin appeared in the front of the classroom.

"Alright brats listen up! You're going to be taking a written exam! So you'll start by coming up and taking a number, then finding your assigned seats! And that includes you three in the rafters!" he called, shoving his finger in the direction of Haku, Kabuto, and Naruto. They gracefully dropped down and got in the front of the line, joyfully taking numbers and in Haku's case skipping to her seat. Naruto and Kabuto shot each other 'what's gotten into her' looks. The exam began soon enough and there was the sweet sound of pencils scratching and tapping on the wood and paper. Slowly people were expelled from the exam, one team, then another, and so on until only about half of them were left. And it had only been fifteen minutes… Finally the proctor himself called someone out.

"Hey you there, get your feet off your desk, and work on the dang test!" Naruto raised his head and looked at the proctor, next thing his mouth was moving and his slightly girly voice echoed in the room.

"But I finished," he looked at the clock on the wall, "Seven minutes ago." Half the people in the room let their pencils clatter to their desks.

"Let me see…The rest of you back to your tests, or I'll have you all kicked out!" he stomped up the stairs to Naruto's seat and took the paper expecting to find all blank or wrong answers, but he was surprised to find it completely filled out with all the right answers. He glared at the grin for a moment before putting the test down and walking back to the front of the classroom, not even bothering when Naruto put his feet up again. He'd successfully cheated; he'd already planned on it, and all of them had gotten tiny snakes and he'd left another in the rafters, it then hissed the answers, and the smaller snakes would say the same answers, quiet enough not to be heard by their neighbors but loud enough to be heard by the ones they were helping.

About 45 minutes later…

Naruto, Haku, and Kabuto had definitely passed the exam, which of course happened right in time for a crazy lady they recognized to crash through the window… Anko, the old student of Orochimaru's of course they knew about her, but they weren't sure if she would recognize them as being a part of Orochimaru's force.

"Alright maggots, no more easy stuff, Biki's just gotten soft! You will meet me in front of training ground 44 tomorrow morning at 7:45 a.m.! Anyone who's even a minute late will be instantly disqualified! Now scram!" she called. The genin left the room, and went out for celebrations; well most of them, three certain genin were trying to figure out a way to mask the smell of snakes that had so heavily penetrated their clothes. Not that anyone else noticed, but she might, Anko as they'd heard could tell when Orochimaru was near because he smelled of snakes. So now the hard part… Getting the boys to wear some of Haku's cinnamon perfume… (Oh boy, the poor, poor boys… (*Sings* Poor unfortunate souls…(From the little mermaid)))

Alright here we are! Done! Finito! Finished! ^.^ Hope you all enjoyed!

EDIT: I am SOOOOOOO sorry guys! I had Volleyball at 9 a.m., then I had MATH, THEN one of my friends came over for a five-hour strait shot of Tales Of Symphonia! WE MADE IT TO THE SECOND DISK BY THE WAY! Also I've been VERY hyper, and been craving Chocolate Ice Cream (Hence the hyperness)! SO PLEASE don't be mad! I updated today Right?! OH! And By the way I'll warn you when but I'm PROBABLY going to made a complete pause on EVERYTHING update in about... 4 weeks. I'm having Surgery on March 17th, and I probably will be stuck downstairs for like a week to two weeks after I get home from a WEEK hospital stay all the way down in SLC! I MIGHT have my older sister update for me every week until I can do it myself- like get the chapters ready and then have her update from there, but we'll see how it all works out! Unless I tell you otherwise just expect an update! Love you all and please drop me a review! (It might help me 'cause I've been on writers block for like a two weeks now on the last chapter PLEASE help ME!)


	6. The Forest of Death!

No own, no sue.

Son of the Snake

Chapter 6

The Forest of Death!

* * *

"I _cannot _believe you got me to wear this girly smelly crap!"

"I can't either…" Haku said.

"I mean Kabuto it fits; he could at least pass for a girl if he tried; but seriously, me?!"

"Actually," Kabuto began. "You have the voice pitch of a female, and about the average size of one. So you could probably pass for a woman easier than me."

"I hate you sometimes…"

"You say that a daily basis."

"It's because you're always annoying me!"

"Hello kiddies!" Anko said overly cheerfully as she chose to prey on them. "Mmmm… Cinnamon, that smells good…" she said. "I wonder why the boys are wearing it too…"

"Ah, I thought their reactions would be funny, and I needed a good laugh this morning, besides its good revenge for yesterday when NK won that bet and Kabuto and I went broke.

"I think you and I are going to get along just fine girly." Anko said grinning.

Ten minutes later…

"Alright Maggots! You're going to be going into this training ground, it's called Training Ground 44, but it's also known as the forest of death…"

"Ah, I've heard of it… It's got a bunch of big animals and insects right?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yea, humph expect a Nara to know it all, and ruin your carefully thought out speech…" Anko said, rolling her eyes.

Ten more minutes later…

"Alright, Haku, you're in the back, if anyone comes up behind us you take care of them." Naruto said.

"Kabuto you're in front, you're best at close up combat." Haku directed.

"And Naruto you're in the middle, if either of us need help you can always summon a few poisonous snakes; but we should refrain from killing to many others with snakes, some might get suspicious of us if we do…"

There was a hissing behind them and Naruto turned, and knelt down to the little snake. "Hmm?" The blond slowly grinned, standing back up. "Dad is in here, and would like us to steer clear in case someone makes the connection… And we're to incapacitate as many teams as possible…"

"Alright, let's go."

"Right, new plan though, Haku there's a team about one hundred meters to the west, Kabuto will be between in case either of us gets hurt, and I will take the team to the north west, and whoever is done first goes with Kabuto to help."

"Sounds good, let's go."

"Alright, move out!"

Ten minutes later…

Haku was just clearing out the last of the team, when she heard Kabuto and Naruto behind her. They looked at each other.

"A bunch of whimps?" Haku asked.

"Worse they were setting up traps. One of them had already been injured. And they tried to defend and attack; it was pitiful."

"We should probably go on. What scroll did you get?"

"A heaven scroll, how about you Haku?"

"An earth scroll,"

"And we already had an earth scroll; let's destroy that one, the less teams the better. Besides, it'll make a big difference if there are less ninja in the village." Naruto said, taking more towards a hissing tone as he continued speaking.

"I guess you're right, ok, so then send out your scouts, and we'll find out where more teams are."

"Ok!"

* * *

Anko was sitting eating dango; listening with a grin to the screams that managed to amazingly carry through the entire forest and reach her awaiting ears. Unfortunately, her moment was ruined when an ANBU interrupted her sadistic pleasure.

"Ma'am we have a problem."

"A problem…?"

"Yes,"

"And what kind of problem would involve me?"

"We found bodies."

"I'm still curious as to why this concerns me."

"They're strange, different… Their- their faces are gone ma'am."

"What?!" she screeched, jumping up and staring the poor, poor ANBU down. "What do you _mean_ their faces are _gone_?! Take me there!"

"Y-yes ma'am,"

* * *

Orochimaru was on the move, he had a single target in mind- Sasuke Uchiha. He would be his, and Naruto was going to play a large role in his retrieval. While Orochimaru couldn't stay in the open for too long, Naruto had the privilege to walk around the village.

"Sasuke Uchiha- when I find your underpowered team… You will become mine… Ever so slowly, I will make you mine, and when it's time I will take your body and make that Sharingan my own."

* * *

Hinata was using her Byakugan to find the tower… Until she saw an overly familiar face; she stumbled back suddenly, surprised and somewhat scared.

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Kiba asked, catching her before she fell back all the way.

"I-I saw someone… I didn't think I'd ever see again."

"Who was it Hinata?"

"N-Naruto-"

"Naruto, but- How is that possible? He's been missing for years!"

"I don't know… But he's out there; I'd never be able to miss his face."

* * *

"NK, if they know about you that's a bad thing. Want me to get them?"

"No, we'll leave that team. One of them has the Byakugan; she could pick us out before we even could get close. No, it's better to find a different team."

"Alright, who do you suggest?"

"You know that other Leaf team? With the Nara, the Akimichi, and the Yamanaka,"

"You want to get them?"

"Yes. I think it will be fun to go 'say hi'. If you get what I'm saying."

"Why not," Kabuto said.

"I'm for it."

"Good they're in the east part of the forest, fairly close to us. Dad is to the north, so we'll have to be careful not to meet him, otherwise we might get found out."

"Right, let's go."

* * *

"Ok, let's see… Choji!" Ino yelled, grabbing boy's scarf. "Seriously?! Come on! You just ate!"

"I'm hungry ok."

"Fine whatever, but well… let's see… Shika do you have anything?" Ino yelled up to him. She'd made him climb a tree and scout the forest from there.

"There's a team coming from the south west."

"Good let's get ready! They won't even know what hit them!"

"Alright, Choji, finish your chips, and get ready with your expansion jutsu in those bushes, Ino you're behind the bushes with Choji so he can defend you, and I'll stay up here and surprise them from above with my shadow techniques."

"Great, come on Choji!" Ino said dragging Choji behind the bushes with her. Soon enough the team Shikamaru had spoken of appeared. Shikamaru at seeing exactly who it was froze for a split second, realizing who they had to fight.

He used his technique, only trapping the female of the team. But then she did something… He only realized he was now frozen to the tree limb he was on and that there was someone behind him when Choji rammed the tree, knocking the person behind him off balance for a second, long enough for him to land a solid punch.

"Wow, you're good- first time I've been hurt in a month."

"I've had lots of practice, as I'm sure you have, eh Naruto?"

"How did you-?"

"Simple, I've been getting most of the information on you as it's turned up. You've certainly gotten tons better, before I admit I would have been skeptical of you being able to do very much, but it seems with the right amount of training you've gotten much better."

"I wish you didn't know it was me… We weren't supposed to kill many teams… Especially not with poison; but someone who knows my identity is a very bad thing… Shikamaru, you're going to die."

"What a drag…" Shikamaru said sighing, and dropping out of the tree. Naruto dropped after him a snake on his left arm.

"Alright Sonja, take care of him; I'll just be sitting by that tree…" Naruto said, grinning as the battle was being won around him; Ino and Choji were ill equipped to deal with Haku and Kabuto. They were doing fine until an awful scream nearly ripped the air in half. "I see…" Naruto said, standing up, and waving Kabuto and Haku out of battle. "You're lucky. Haku, Kabuto, go find our next target! I'll be there in a minute."

"Right!" they chorused, leaving.

"You're very lucky that happened when it did, otherwise you'd all be dead by now."

"Why Naruto…?" Shikamaru asked, stumbling a little as a kunai in his leg moved. Ino and Choji looked up from their respective places on the ground, where they were luckily, only battered and bruised, with only a few cuts and scrapes.

"I have my reasons; reasons I don't have to state to you. See you in the tower. Got a few more teams to hit before going there myself; and don't tell anyone about me or else. I'd like to see that old geezer's face when he finds out. Remember, or else." There was no need to finish his threat; they could tell what he meant; _or else you die._

Naruto had gained Orochimaru's unspoken threat ability as he called it, over his many years of watching it in action; and now he could use it easily. The Black clad Ninja walked away, leaving a very confused genin team…

* * *

Garra was just on his Bloody Merry Way, when he stopped. This of course frightened his siblings, who were worried he might have finally lost it with them, and was going to kill them; they wouldn't put it past him at this point…

"What's wrong?" Temari enquired hesitantly.

Unfortunately she didn't get an answer and Kankuro and Temari were ready to split and run when Garra started shaking, almost as if in fear of _something. _Finally a minute later he stopped shaking and stood strait-

"It's nothing, move."

* * *

Naruto laughed in glee, he'd found another Jinchuriki, third so far. One shared the Nine Tails, another with the two tailed Nibi, and now the One Tailed Shikaku; right now he was pretty proud of himself.

"Hey Haku, Kabuto, we're going to split for now. Kabuto I'm told that there's a team that just went by here a few minutes ago, they went north. Haku there's a team to the south. I'll take the one to the northwest- we meet at the tower. Sound good?"

"Right," Haku said poised to leave.

"Of course," Kabuto said. Naruto nodded and they all left in different directions.

A couple days later…

Aurea sat comfortably in the couch, curled into a good book and happy to have the time to her-self… Plenty of time to steal Naruto's money and go out to fancy restaurants…

* * *

Naruto and Haku sat silently in the upper floors of the tower; Kabuto was taking a nap, and then presumably a shower. Haku was clean, and fed, and watered already since she'd arrived first. Naruto was second, only waiting for some food; and Kabuto was last, just today starting to refresh himself. They still had two days of time. They'd spent one day and half a night in the forest before reaching the tower and meeting back up.

Everyone made it with relatively no injury, the boys sustaining a few injures, while Haku used an ice jutsu to freeze the team from the inside out. Or more specifically- freeze their hearts to the point they stopped beating. Eventually she left them, barely alive taking and destroying their scrolls, then going to the tower.

Naruto had started with snakes to deliver a sedative and light poison, one from each fang. It got all but one, leaving him an opponent. He of course won but did get a few scrapes in the battle.

And Kabuto simply severed several arteries and is opponents died nearly instantly from blood loss; a clean and quick job; one Orochimaru, their sensei, Aurea, and the team itself were all proud of.

Of course they were all tired, something that was painfully obvious when Naruto fell asleep against Haku's shoulder, cutting off his sentence.

"Oh Naruto- you're really do pick the most random places to do things don't you." She whispered. She almost woke him up, but seeing the bags under his eyes was enough to prevent her from having the heart for it. "Fine, sleep on my shoulder, but only this once, next time I'm kicking you off of somewhere high." Naruto grunted quietly; almost in agreement. And Haku sighed pushing herself deeper into the couch.

* * *

Ok, if _that_ wasn't an ending, I have NO idea what is! So chapter FINISHED!


	7. One on One: Battle into the Third Round!

Aww to heck with the disclaimer, SURE I own Naruto, and all the characters thereof! *Rolls eyes* These are a little annoying and I have no more ideas for entertaining ones. SO NO MORE DISCALIMERS! You all know I DON'T own it! So you can't get on my case about it!

Oh and one more thing- Sakura and Sasuke's team might be a little confusing… They don't have Naruto, and all the rest of the teams are the same- so then, you've probably been wondering, "Where is teammate # 3?" Truth is, there _is_ no official teammate number three, for missions like wave country, they take someone from another of the rookie teams, and for the forest of death they were left alone (Poor Sasuke… All the easier to turn though, I guess.), and though they will play quite the part in the _story_, they will _not_ get a final teammate…

* * *

Son of the Snake

Chapter 7

One on One: Battle into the Third Round!

Ino was scared… Honestly, truly, and fully _scared_. Though she hated being so, Naruto was in the room. It was the first time she'd met him since their encounter in the forest, and they'd barely talked about it as a team, too afraid someone might hear.

"Ino are you alright?" Asuma asked touching her shoulder. Ino stopped shaking, only now realizing that she –in fact- was shaking; terribly so at that.

"I'm fine… It's just… there are a few people here I'd rather not fight…"

"Ino, you'll be fine, and if worse comes to worse, the match can be stopped."

"Right… You're right sensei. Thank you…"

* * *

Naruto meanwhile was scarring the crap out of Garra, letting an overly evil wave drift off of him, via Kyubi's chakra; causing everyone in its wake, even his own teammates to edge away from him. Finally the first match was about to be decided, and…

"The first match will be between Neji Hyuuga, and Dosu Kinuta."

The two left their teams, and went down to their match… Of course the match didn't last long at all, as soon as Neji shut down all the chakra to Dosu's arms he was useless, and the match was ended very quickly after that.

"Winner Neji Hyuuga," The board flashed again and two new names showed up. "The next match will be Shikamaru Nara, and Zaku Abumi!"

Shikamaru walked down lazily, and by the time he finally got to the bottom everyone was think something along the lines of a descendant of the snail… Maybe that was the Nara clan's summon…

As soon as both boys were ready the proctor stepped back. "Begin!"

Zaku was off, sending several kunai at Shikamaru, he twisted in an almost impossible way and the kunai embedded into the wall with a dull _thunk _for each.

"Not bad, but let's see you dodge this!" There a blast of wind that tore up the floor, an explosive tag blew through the wind towards Shikamaru. This proved to be his first and last mistake, as he found himself caught, he couldn't move. Finally the dust cleared and he found shadows connected to his own. Suddenly he jerked, not of his own accord either and no sooner did he find himself spinning rapidly. He spun, and spun, what glances he got of Shikamaru proved he was also spinning. Finally, after two barf-worthy minutes of spinning, Shikamaru stopped; barely looking phased as Zaku was ready to collapse. The Nara dropped the jutsu and watched his opponent fall; he threw a few kunai pinning Zaku's arms down, and walked away.

"Proctor, this match is over."

"Winner, Shikamaru Nara!"

Naruto looked at the board, and found that the person he most wanted to battle was actually going to battle him! Ha! Yes! Finally, the person he most wanted revenge on was going to _battle_ him!

"The next match is Sasuke Uchiha, and Akarui Kimichi!" (I know, I used that name before!)

"So to see if it's true…" Sasuke muttered jumping the railing, as Naruto did the same from the other side of the room.

The proctor stepped back. "Begin!"

They started immediately, charging- Sasuke had to know if it was true, so he made a plan, distract, and maybe de-mask.

They clashed and Sasuke took the time to start a conversation. "So, is that you Naruto? It's you, isn't it?" Again they passed and stopped on opposite sides of the arena. Everyone was oblivious to their conversation.

Naruto let out an evil chuckle as Sasuke lunged at him again. "And does it matter if I am?"

"So then, it's true… My suspicions were right a couple weeks ago when we met; so then what happened to you?!" Sasuke asked.

"And why should I tell you? Don't tell me the stuck up, and overly prideful Uchiha was worried about little old me." Naruto said mockingly, blocking another attack.

"I'm no- I… Wasn't, I'm just curious."

"Just curious… Huh, well, if I didn't know better I'd believe that, but you're lying." The blonde lunged laughing as he swiped and cut Sasuke's arm open, causing blood to flow from the wound. "You're pathetic; honestly, I can't see what he wants from you…" Now Orochimaru – who had been listening to the exchange via snake - was starting to mind, sure he could understand his son having fun; but letting slip that he was after Sasuke's body wouldn't do. He sent a message through his snakes for him to end it, and be done. Naruto nodded, grinning – almost looking feral – as he advanced on the other boy.

"You're fairly strong, but this is over."

"What do you mean?"

"I injected you with a sedative a couple minutes ago with all that movement it should be working about now. Sasuke growled, and stood up. The blonde was right, he was feeling it, but he wasn't going to show it.

"You're wrong, it's not working yet."

"Heh, heh, heh, alright, you want more of a beating, fine I'll give you one more blow." He said; his grin now full-on as he merrily grabbed Sasuke by the arm and kicked him. He leapt, spring boarding from the balcony, and kicking again, then he did it again, and again, finally when the dark haired boy was nearly at the ceiling he could do next to nothing as he was flipped and kicked hard in the stomach, sending him plummeting towards the ground. He impacted the ground unbelievably hard, his head throbbing, and several broken ribs screaming, Naruto landed beside him. (Yes... Naruto calls that one...)

"Don't tell a soul what you know or else… I plan to make my grand entrance home during the next part of the exams." He left back to the balcony, while med teams scrambled to take care of their 'last loyal Uchiha' Naruto almost grinned on his way back to his team; _Ha! As if!_

"You seemed to be having fun…" Aurea said, frowning a little.

"So, I was having a little fun."

"You know… It's not right to have fun at other people's expense. Unless it's a joke, and doesn't offend anyone; it's wrong."

"Oh come on; he's the one that was the worst to me. It felt good to beat him up some."

"Still… I didn't like seeing you like that. Please don't do it again. I don't want you to end up like the one tails."

"…Fine… I promise, I'll try not to find any joy in beating up others, unless I have good reason to ok?"

Aurea sighed. "Better; we'll work on it."

The next match was announced- "Sakura Haruno and Garra!"

"Oh this will be good, little miss pinky is weak, and Tomato head is got a lust for killing." Naruto said; then muttered a little, "He _was_ going on a freaking massacre in the forest."

"I-I-I- forfeit!" Sakura called before the match even began. She could tell when she wouldn't win.

"Uh… Winner, Garra!" The proctor called. He turned back to the board while the two retreated. "Haku Momochi and Kankuro,"

The two people walked down the stairs or dropped into the arena, Haku stood poised, but calm as she stood there giving Kankuro a look she was hoping a boy couldn't resist… Of course who could ignore the beauty of a lady such as herself? She didn't want to reveal much about her technique yet; so she had to hide behind her pretty exterior; and her status...

"I hope you fight fair Kankuro, I rather clean fights… Of course I'm sure from previous encounters you know _exactly _what I'm capable of…"

"Begin!"

Haku began forward, taking a slash at his clothes to see if it was the real Kankuro, or the puppet. Turned out to be the puppet; while Kankuro was hiding wrapped up in back; she pretended not to notice as she slowly, but surely iced the joints, she seemed to be dancing with the hunk of wood as it slowed, she got faster.

Finally she stopped, and delivered the final blow to the puppet.

"This battle is over; I've 'broken' all the joints in your puppet, you are not a close range fighter, so I would suggest you go ahead and forfeit the match… Before I hurt you," She said leveling a gaze at him that could probably break steel.

"Fine… I can tell when I've lost. Proctor, I forfeit."

"Alright, the match goes to Haku Momochi!"

"Thank you! That was a good match," She got a little closer. "Make sure you defrost and dry your puppet so it doesn't deform."

"Humph,"

Haku skipped back to her team, happily rubbing it in their faces that she was the best so far.

The proctor stepped forward again, and announced the next battle, "Shino Aburame and Tenten,"

The two went down to the arena and faced each other. Tenten had hard set determination, and Shino was as indifferent as ever, thought that might have been because of his collar.

"Alright, let the match… Begin!"

There was barely enough time for the proctor to step back, before Tenten chucked a few weapons in Shino's direction the boy easily dodged them and dropped to the ground on the other side of the area, looking at her for a second before raising his right arm and sending a horde of bugs after her. Tenten paled at the bugs, and dodged; she hated bugs, she really, really did!

"EWW! Seriously; why bugs,"

"It is my clan specialty."

"Well…. I guess I can't blame you for taking on your clan's abilities…"

"Interesting… You have a wind element of chakra…"

"I what-?!"

"One of my bugs attached itself to you and was leeching chakra; you have a wind elemental chakra."

"That's… Creepy," She said, pulling out a scroll; opening it, she released all the weapons inside, using them to try and impale Shino. The boy dodged giving her a look, as he had most of his bugs return to him after several deaths.

"You're very good with those weapons… It's unfortunate that you're a long range fighter as I am… This could go on for days… But I think that after a while one of us will have to give up. It's only natural to become bored or impatient…" He said unemotionally, his eyes slowly moving behind his glasses as he watched the weapons fly at him.

Ten minutes later…

Tenten nearly screamed in frustration. Shino and she had both been dodging each other's attacks very well, and as he'd said before, this could go on forever… It seemed to be true. Unless… An evil grin crossed her face…

"Hey Shino! How long can you keep this up anyways?" She asked.

"At least several more hours,"

She reached into one of her pouches and pulled out bug spray. Shino seemed slightly surprised, and moved away from here about five more feet.

"Ah ha, I was right! Bug spray would work on you!"

"Proctor I forfeit…"

Shino went back to his team, and Tenten cackled evilly as went back, slightly irking Neji, and freaking Lee, and Gai out.

_Why do I get all the weird teammates…? _Neji thought.

"The next battle will be Hinata Hyuuga, and Kabuto Yakushi!"

This was probably one of the quickest battles, since they were matched for speed, but Kabuto was able to cut several muscles, and the match was called in his favor; despite the fact that Hinata did her best efforts.

Next was "Kiba Inuzuka VS Rock Lee!"

"I hope you are ready!" Lee said, getting into a fighting stance. Kiba and Akamaru did the same.

"Begin!" The three started moving instantly, Lee was moving behind, while Kiba was turning to block him. The boy put up an arm, and attempted to catch Lee's leg. But to the surprise of all but a few there was a sickening crack from Kiba's arm as he pulled away cursing horribly. Akamaru growled, and checked on his master. Kiba shook it off, despite his arm almost certainly being broken, and charged with a note to himself never to get near Lee's legs.

That of course was impossible, as Lee usually used his legs for attacks, and Kiba was taken off he feet, and down within ten minutes; despite Kiba and Akamaru's best efforts.

"Rock Lee is the winner! And the next match is: Kin Tsuchi VS Choji Akimichi!" The two entered the arena and stood face to face. "Begin!"

This battle didn't start so fast as the others; Kin and Choji were both fairly good at calculating their enemies, and so they were both measuring each other up, based on what little they could tell from outward appearance.

"Well… If there's one thing I can tell from appearances, it's that you're fat."

"What did you just call me?"

"What are you going to do about it fatty?"

Five minutes later…

"Ehem… Eh, Winner, Choji Akimichi… The last match will be Temari VS Ino Yamanaka."

"You better get ready girly… I'm going whip that pretty little butt of yours into shape…"

A few minutes later, and Temari had soundly beaten Ino, as the girl was sprawled out on the floor, bleeding, and probably unconscious if the crack from when her head hit the ground was any indication. The proctor took a few steps forward.

"Temari is the winner. Now we will show you the matches for the final round. Shikamaru Nara VS Kabuto Yakushi, Temari VS Akarui Kimichi, Haku Momochi VS Tenten, Garra VS Rock Lee, and Neji Hyuuga VS Choji Akimichi! We will have the final round in one month, use the time to train!" The Proctor disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and the genin all filed out of the tower, and to their hotels, and a nice long sleep…

* * *

And DONE! I know the last of it was bad. I should have done a bit more. But I just suck at battle scenes. I can imagine them, but I can't describe them. Anyways, R&R please!

EDIT: Uhm…. WOW, I'm writing this Wednesday (March 5, 2014), and I am in SHOCK… I just went to look at the reviews to the story and BAM I saw like 4 more reviews! SO I read them, and WOW, I'm just… THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! I love you guys! I literally CAN'T KEEP A SMILE OFF MY FACE RIGHT NOW! You've made me the HAPPIEST authoress IN THE WORLD right now… TAHNK YOU SO MUCH! I didn't expect this story to be so well received, (Even if it's still a baby compared to a bunch of my other stories!).


	8. Many Close Calls

Ok so really quick! Before you start reading this chapter… Well I want to address something, a couple things actually. No Naruto will not have a good relationship with Jiraiya, he in fact sees Jiraiya as his biggest enemy, and his biggest threat because of how often his spies find where Naruto is. So that means that he's going to hate Jiraiya on site. We'll see how long that lasts; I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up like this.

Also, Naruto, in order to disguise himself, has temporary changed his name to Akarui so if you see the Name Akarui where Naruto should be don't get confused, he's there… He's just got a different name!

**EDIT: HELP! OUR WONDERFUL SITE HERE IS AT RISK OF SHUTTING DOWN! _SOPA _****IS BACK- IT INTENDS TO SHUT DOWN ALL SITES LIKE THIS, THEY WILL SHUT DOWN AND DELETE _FANART, FAN-PAGES, FANFICS, FAN MADE VIDEOS, ETC. PLEASE HELP US SAVE OUR HOURS OF HARD WORK AND DEDICATION! WE'VE STOPPED THEM BEFORE WE CAN STOP THEM AGAIN! PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION AT - _**** petitions. whitehouse. gov/petition/ stop-sopa-2014/q0Vkk0Zr** - **(Just remove the spaces) _Is also on my Profile page at the very top_**

**Thank you! And keep sending this message around! We can beat them!**

Now to the story!

Son of the Snake

Chapter 8

Many close calls

* * *

Jiraiya sat waiting in Hiruzen's office. He had some idea of where his Sensei was, but wasn't exactly sure so he decided to take up residence on his spinning chair, rubbing his eyes as he slowly drifted off to sleep. But he was pulled harshly from his dreams as the office door slammed open and Hiruzen walked in, with the elders behind him. It seemed to the Toad Sage that they were fighting over something. Finally after about three minutes more, they finished their argument for the moment, and the elders left leaving the poor old Hokage alone. Well he wasn't alone, but it was quiet.

Finally Jiraiya was awake enough to string a sentence together… "Hey sensei,"

"Hello Jiraiya."

"I'm probably taking you chair up aren't I?"

"Yes you are."

"And I'm going to make a wild assumption that you want it back…?"

"You'd be right in the assumption." Jiraiya stood up and sat on the window sill.

"So, I'm going to ask again, you're sure Naruto is in the village?"

"Ninety percent positive,"

"Great… Where is he in the village?"

"He's on the sound team lead by Aurea Kimichi."

"Oh that Jounin with red hair, right?"

"Yes, that would be her."

"Alright, so which of her team?"

"We suspect Naruto to be the one-" The door slammed open to a white Shikamaru, and a worried Hinata.

"We've got to talk!" Shikamaru said, panting as though he'd run from the outskirts of the village.

"Can't this wait until I'm done?" Hiruzen questioned.

"No! Hinata is on the same subject as all of us so we can all talk about it together."

"And that subject would be…" Jiraiya questioned, testing him.

"Naruto;"

"Come in, both of you, and close the doors." Shikamaru let Hinata enter then entered himself and shut the doors. "Why don't you lock those as well; I'd rather not have someone barge in while were in the middle of this conversation." Shikamaru locked the door, and sat down in the chair beside Hinata.

"Can you shut and lock and put the blinds over the windows as well… Just in case…" Shikamaru said, not regaining any color despite being in the Old Hokage's inviting and safe feeling office.

"What is this you're saying about Naruto?" Hiruzen asked softly.

"Hinata, you go first."

"I-in the forest of d-death… I was searching with my Byakugan… a-and I saw h-his, Naruto's face… It was a little d-different… B-but it was his…"

"Dang, why didn't I think to use the Byakugan to search…?" Jiraiya groaned feeling like a total idiot.

"What about you Shikamaru."

"What do you know about where he's been and who he's been with? I've asked for suspicions, and I could tell you were holding back but now it's serious so I need to know." The boy said urgently.

"We don't know anything for sure yet."

"Suspicions, guesses, anything; please!"

"Alright fine… Our suspicions are that Orochimaru kidnapped him… And if he did, it seems as though he raised him, and made Naruto a part of his force… But those are only our suspicions."

"I can confirm them…" Shikamaru said grimly. "This is such a drag… Only a nin like Orochimaru could make Naruto, of all people, go so bad…"

"What do you mean?"

Shikamaru laughed a bit, "What I mean is that my teammates and I are pathetic compared to him and his team. They attacked us in the forest of death, and if something hadn't happened nearby that caused them to leave… All three of us would be dead… And from the authority he was tossing around it was all by his orders. He's become a ruthless, unfeeling killer…"

"Naruto a ruthless… That can't-"

"It is. I told him that I figured out who he was, and he was going to kill me with his own hands… I don't know what that Orochimaru guy did to him, but he's overly vengeful. And before he left he threatened to kill us if we talked… Something about seeing your face when you found out."

* * *

Kabuto snuck in the window with a mask over his face, contacts only, and a black hat on to hide his hair, and walked around the bed in the room, taking a look at the sleeping boy. The Curse mark and the battle with Naruto had made a large impact on him; so he wouldn't be waking up for a while, giving Kabuto plenty of time to kidnap Sasuke, and get away… There was a scuffing noise behind the door, as someone stopped for a minute before opening the door. Kabuto jumped Sasuke's bed, and cut all the wires, and tubes, hefting the genin in his arms, and making to jump out the window. But he was stopped as a kunai was thrown right beside his ear, cutting it slightly, but the blood was unnoticed in the black fabric.

"Where do you think you're going with my student?" Kakashi asked venom in his voice. Kabuto did the only thing he could do. He put Sasuke down without turning around and jumped out the window, leaving the hospital grounds. Kakashi of course caught up with him after slamming open the door to get some attention to Sasuke's room; They were matched for speed, luckily Kakashi couldn't figure out who it was because of his mask, and his hat, and he'd have to stop him to get rid of either very easily.

Suddenly a kunai cut the man off, and Kabuto got away; a shadow from the tree beside him chuckled evilly before disappearing with a very specifically pitched whistle as a flock of birds obscured the one eyed Jounin's vision by attacking him. The boy in shadows smirked; he could thank his sister for that; now to deal with Kabuto…

* * *

Naruto stormed to his and Kabuto's room.

"_What the heck was that?!_" The boy screeched, spewing a few choice words.

"Orders from your father,"

"No I mean seriously! You couldn't just wait until later?!"

"No I couldn't have. He would have been awake later. At this point he's drugged on pain medication, and still got some sleeping drugs in his system. It was the _only_ time I might have been able to pull it off. Any other time, and for now he would scream and struggle the entire way."

"Whatever…" Naruto mumbled, suddenly feeling overly tired. "I need a nap, I'm really…Tir-" The blonde collapsed to the ground, as Kabuto smirked putting his needle away, while Naruto had been angry he'd given him something to make him sleep… And the fact that his heart rate increased very significantly helped, since it entered the bloodstream and dispersed quickly.

"Alright Naruto… Now to fix that seal I put on your memories… I can't have you having a relapse can I… Lord Orochimaru would have my head… And I've managed to keep it this long…" Kabuto said lifting the pale boy, removing his cape, and mask, and laying him on the bed. He then put his hand to Naruto's forehead, and channeled chakra, slowly fixing the strength of the seal he'd done several years ago…

* * *

Jiraiya sat on the roof outside of Kabuto, and Naruto's room, listening, and even stealing a glance at his godson. That was definitely Naruto; he had no doubt in his mind as he heard and saw him… And considering what that Kabuto kid had said… There was a seal on his memories; well that explained his behavior…

* * *

The next couple weeks passed quickly, and with little to no incident. Kabuto could tell that the seal he'd placed was back up to full strength, and the team was now training often, having to be called several times to get back to the hotel for meals, and sleep. They were getting significantly stronger; Haku was working on making her ice techniques stronger, and a new technique that would make the invasion easier.

Naruto as well was working on a technique; the one he'd used on Sasuke was incomplete, and he wanted to finish it and have it for the final round, and invasion.

While Kabuto was working on channeling chakra deeper into the muscles since he could only get several inches. Naruto had become his involuntary test subject. He of course healed it later but now the blonde flinched whenever Kabuto mentioned the incident or got near him with a hand.

Of course Naruto couldn't keep such a great mood for too long, everyone knew that, and they were just waiting for him to-_ *Snap*_- There went is temper…

* * *

He was yell-whispering at a couple of ninja, "What did you think you were doing talking so openly about it?! If he'd gotten that information to the Hokage then the entire plan would be ruined."

"We're sorry, but I would have gotten him anyways…" Baki half apologized, half reprimanded; Kabuto was on the sidelines, and was a bit surprised to see Baki standing up to the blonde, even just a bit.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "And then _if_ you hadn't and the Old Man found out what was going on, then what? You'd be in really hot water; both of you. I don't feel like dealing with it, since it's already dealt with, but if this happens again…"

"It won't."

"Fine,"

"Kabuto come on we need to talk…"

"Give me one moment; I want to say something to Baki here."

"Fine, I'll be waiting at the hotel."

"You know Baki… I'm surprised; you're treading on his nerves quite a bit by talking like you did... I'd be careful what you say around him, he might punish you. And I believe the only reason he was so angry, is because he's worried about his father punishing me. So while you may think he's an overpowered, egotistical, spoiled brat, he has different motives than you think and is actually worth the time."

"I... Understand… Well, I should go and report to the Kazekage…"

"See you later Baki. Be ready."

"Don't worry I'll be back in time."

* * *

Alright! Chapter 8 done in 2 days! I'm so proud! So that was mostly just keeping pace with all the preparations, and Naruto's temper; now for the 3rd round! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

*Ambur takes a couple melatonin pills and shoves into mouth…*

An hour later…

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA-

Ambur: Oh no I made her loopy! It's ten times worse!

EDIT: I know... I made Shika WAYYY to serious in this chappy... But I needed to make him so. AND he IS one of my fave characters so, that also contributes. AND I know Naru has a REALLY short temper... Nothing REALLLY new there though...

ALSO _**VERY IMPORTANT AN:**_** I will be having Surgery on the 18****th**** and this will be no regular surgery either, it'll be my last one, so probably my second biggest (Behind the first one); so I probably won't even be on the computer for at least 2-3 weeks afterwards, let alone be able to sit and type forever, so I unfortunately won't be updating for a while.****I hope you all understand! Love you all!**

**Edit for the Important AN: Though I have this story mostly written out I also have BlackShadesofRed to thank for my inspiration to change the ending of the story. It's going to tweak about 180 degrees… Yea, so I'll probably plot that out while I'm down. Love you all and I'll miss you!**


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